‘Dancing With The Stars’ Ratings Hit Premiere Low, ‘Voice’ Down, ‘Originals’ Rises, ‘Following’ Even

There were some megastars in the house for the Season 20 kickoff of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars (1.9/6) last night, but no high kicks — at least ratingswise. With Rumer Willis among the celebs strutting their stuff this year, parents Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were there to show support during the two-hour premiere Monday. Still, the star power didn’t provide much of a step for DWTS, which had its lowest season premiere ever among adults 18-49. Even though the dancing competition was the most-watched show of Monday’s primetime with 12.4 million tuning in, the series dropped 26% in the key demo from its last spring debut on March 17, 2014.

Viewershipwise, last night’s debut was down 21% from the 15.66 million who watched the two-hour Season 18 premiere last year. Compared to the Season 19 opener on September 15 last year, last night tumbled 17% among 18-49s. With that, lead-out Castle (1.5/5) remained basically steady with its last original February 23 with a 6% dip.

In the final tally, ABC won the night in total viewers with 12.372 million and NBC took the demo top spot with 2.7/8 rating.

As in most previous seasons, DWTS was up against The Voice (3.3/10) last night and it was the latter that won that unscripted standoff. The NBC singing competition was the highest-rated show of the night but took a 13% hit itself from last week in the demo. In preliminary numbers, that’s the worst result The Voice has had this season so far – though the show is commonly adjusted in later ratings, so that could change. The rest of NBC’s night saw Voice lead-out The Night Shift (1.5/5) rising 15% from last week.

CBS and Fox were a mix of encores and originals with the former’s new Mike & Molly (1.9/6) down 10% from last week and the latter’s The Following (1.1/3) even with last week — a series low for the Kevin Bacon-starrer. In total ratings Monday night, Fox pulled in a 0.9/3, which put it behind third-place Univision’s 1.0/3 by a nose.

The CW, which got a 0.5/2 overall rating, saw The Originals (0.6/2) rise 20% from the season low of last week. Lead-out Jane The Virgin (0.4/1) fell 20% from its March 9 show to match a low among adults 18-49 in preliminary ratings.